How today's grandmothers have fun with, relate to, and communicate with our grandchildren

American grandmothers with Nepalese children

In "our" village in Nepal

Friday, February 8, 2013

WHAT WE GRANNIES DIDN’T HAVE WHEN OUR OWN KIDS WERE BABIES

When I see the young moms in my neighborhood walking their babies in double strollers, I think how I would have loved one of those to go out with my two-year-old and infant. When I see the clear plastic rain covers on strollers I think how great that would have been when I had to take my baby along when I walked my older daughter to nursery school. And this just skims the mommy surface. Here are a few other things we didn’t have:

Disposable diapers. Disposables had just come on the scene for my youngest baby and I saved them for special occasions, like traveling to visit her grandparents.

Convertible seats. I love those seats that go seamlessly from stroller to car to home, and how they save all that buckling and unbuckling, squshing little arms and legs in those straps, every time you need to change the baby’s venue.

The Internet. And all the services it can offer – from online ordering of groceries, diapers, pet food, and other necessities we didn’t have time to go out and buy (but somehow we found the time -- usually).

E-readers. And how much easier it can be with them to read while breastfeeding, so you don’t have to use both hands to hold the book and turn pages.

Workout videos. So in the privacy of your own home you can snatch a few minutes at a time to shed those post-partum pounds.

Instagram and Picasa. So you can share photos of your DBB or DBG with the grandparents without having to shlep to the store to get prints made.

Skype and FaceTime. So you can let your parents meet your babies – and "babysit" virtually with your bigger kids while you tend to the baby.

But what we did have, which modern moms have too, were breasts – so we could give our babies the best start in life by breastfeeding them, as the most modern moms can still do today, thanks to help from lactation consultants and, of course, books!

About Me

I started this blog to talk with other modern grandmothers about how you enjoy your grandchildren -- and I recently broadened the focus to include topics of interest to anyone of grandparent age, whether you have grandkids or not. My book "Super Granny: Great stuff to Do with Your Grandkids" inspired the blog, but if you go to my website, www.sallywendkosolds.com, you'll see that I have many other interests and have written on lots of them in 11 books and more than 200 articles about child development, family life, human relationships, health, and travel. As an oral historian, I have conducted video and audio interviews for several major projects. I’m an avid reader and a people-person.I would love to hear from you. Please leave comments and email me through my website.